Nancy Cantor was right to voice her vision for Syracuse University and the city (Your letters)

I read David Rubin's Nov. 10 column, "Cantor was good for the city, divisive on campus," with great interest. Rubin was the dean of the Newhouse School during my four years as a Syracuse University student, and my freshman year -- 2004 -- was also Chancellor Cantor's "freshman" year on the Hill.

I was bemused by Rubin's assertions that Chancellor Cantor somehow overstepped her bounds and alienated students by articulating her vision for the university as she began her tenure. Like most of my fellow undergraduate students, I didn't care what the slogan of the university was, as it wasn't a slogan that attracted me to the school. I was drawn to SU by the quality of the education and the excitement that the 300-plus student groups, a top-notch study abroad program and SU athletics provided.

Unlike some deans and faculty members, students weren't directly affected by what Rubin calls Cantor's "top-down vision." Indeed, any tension that existed between faculty and the chancellor's office was, for the most part, completely invisible to students. After all, what did "Scholarship in Action" mean to most of us? Maybe we had to go downtown for a class or two. There was a bus route and a bike path, and the architecture students spent a lot of time in Armory Square. If, as Rubin says, the university was already doing these things before she arrived, why not highlight them in service to her vision of a university as an anchor institution? History wasn't "starting over," as Rubin claims, but a new emphasis was being placed on the activities that took SU students out of the traditional classroom and into the surrounding community.

I'm also skeptical of Rubin's assertion that Scholarship in Action somehow refocused the educational experience and the university's investments away from campus. The new Whitman School of Management building, the Center of Excellence, Ernie Davis Residence Hall, the Life Sciences Complex and Dineen Hall -- all on campus -- were all commissioned during Cantor's tenure. The university's billion-dollar fundraising campaign? Last time I checked, that money is being put to use on campus, not in the city. That's a massive investment in the campus environment. So to claim that the needs of students have been somehow ignored is disingenuous.

The impression one gets from reading Rubin's article is that Chancellor Cantor should have just stayed quiet about her plans for the university and let the prevailing wisdom of older, more experienced faculty members guide her years at Syracuse. Words do matter, as Rubin says. She dared to focus the spotlight on her words and her ideas -- and why wouldn't she?

I am a lifetime resident of Central New York, and while I may not have cared about what the slogan of the university was as a freshman student, I did care about the state of our city. I met Chancellor Cantor early in the fall of my freshman year, during her first few months in Syracuse. I asked her what she could do to keep young people in the city after they graduated. I remember her talking about using the resources of the university to make Syracuse into a place where fresh graduates wanted to stay, where they could find good jobs. I, a cynical 18-year-old, was skeptical about her ability to succeed when so many others had failed.

It is only now, with the benefit of a few more years of wisdom, that I have come to fully appreciate what Chancellor Cantor has done for our city. She looked at Syracuse and saw only opportunity for her students and for the city. For that, I am incredibly grateful. I don't know what the tenure of Chancellor Syverud will bring, but I can only hope that his vision for the university and the city will be as bold as his predecessors.